Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:
XOM) was ordered to pay $507.5 million in punitive damages for
its 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, according to reports
Monday.

The settlement determined by
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Monday
is consistent with the figure set by the U.S. Supreme Court last
year. The court also said that Exxon and the plaintiffs were
responsible for their respective legal fees.

The payment will also include
5.9% interest payment accrued since 1996. Plaintiffs were originally
awarded $5 billion, but that amount was severely decreased after
subsequent appeals by Exxon.

Exxon Mobil Corporation insisted
that the interest payments begin in 2008 after the Supreme Court
ruling and also believed that plaintiffs should pay 90% of the
company's legal fees. Exxon has paid over $70 million in legal
fees, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In a prepared statement U.S.
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said, "I am gratified by the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to award interest
to the plaintiffs of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. While I am still
extremely disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision to reduce
the punitive damage award, it is my hope that the interest will
help the victims of the worst environmental disaster in U.S.
history recover a small part of their losses and not allow 13
years of appeals to deprive them of any more justice."

The Exxon Valdez tanker ran
aground March 24, 1989, spilling 11 million gallons of crude
oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. The incident remains
the worst oil spill in U.S. history, covering 11,000 square miles
of ocean.

ExxonMobil is the world's largest
publicly traded company when measured by revenue. According to
estimates, ExxonMobil earned $477 billion in revenue in 2008.
The companies Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999, recombining two
companies that were originally founded by John D. Rockefeller
and his Standard Oil empire.